The Village by The Sea: An Indian Family Story Is A Novel For

The Village by the Sea
The Village by the Sea: an Indian family story is a novel for

young people by the Indian writer Anita Desai, published in The Village by the Sea
London by Heinemann in 1982. It is based on the poverty,
hardships and sorrow faced by a small rural, community in India.
Desai won the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a book
award judged by a panel of British children's writers.[2] It has 13
chapters.
Penguin published a US edition in 1984.
Contents
Plot
Reception
Adaptation
References
External links
First edition
Author Anita Desai
Plot
Country United Kingdom
The Village by the Sea is set in a small village called Thul in Language English
Western India (14 kilometres from Bombay) and focuses on a Genre
Realistic young-adult
family trying to make ends meet. The main protagonists are Lila,
novel
the eldest child who is 13 years old, and her 12-year-old brother
Hari. They also have two younger sisters, Bela and Kamal. They Publisher Heinemann
live with their mother, who has been chronically ill and is bed- Publication 1982
ridden. Their father is an alcoholic, which forces Hari and Lila to date
manage the family. There is a lot of pressure on them due to the Media type Print (hardback and
constant demand for meeting their needs. He wasn't earning
paperback)
money but used to take debts from villagers at the toddy shop to
buy alcohol. With two younger sisters and a bedridden mother to Pages 156 pp (first edition)
take care of, life for Lila and Hari is too hard. Hari decides that he ISBN 0-434-93436-4
has had enough and leaves for Bombay to find work. Lila is left
alone to take care of her family and struggles to do so. Help comes OCLC
20796746 (https://ww
from an unexpected source, the rich De Silvas who have a beach w.worldcat.org/oclc/20
house- Mon Repos next to their hut. Meanwhile, Hari is new in the 796746)
city of dreams, Bombay and he is all alone. A kind restaurant LC Class PZ7.D4488 Vi 1982[1]
owner, Jagu, pities upon him and welcomes him to work in his
restaurant. There, Hari builds a strong friendship with Mr. Panwallah, the lovable watch repairer whose
shop is just beside the shop Jagu had. Through his experience with Mr. Panwallah and Jagu and the chain
of events that take place in Bombay, Hari realizes that he could actually make a career as a watchmaker.
Meanwhile, Lila, Bela, and Kamal admit their sick mother in the town hospital through the help of the De
Silvas. Their father turns over a new leaf and accompanies their mother throughout her 7-month treatment.
When Hari returns to the village soon-after, he finds the environment of his home totally changed. As Hari
reunites with his sisters, they all begin sharing stories with each other detailing the changes that took place
after Hari left. Hari also explains the watch repair skills he learned in Bombay and reveals his plans to start
a small repair shop in the village. Together; Lila, Hari, Bela, and Kamal all form a plan to use Hari's saved
money (which he made and brought back from Bombay) to start a small chicken farm as a start-up business
for the family and financial support base for Hari's future repair shop. As Hari goes to the village to buy a
chicken netting fence and tools to build a chicken pen, Sayyid Ali Sahib a researcher who is staying in
Mon Repos converses with him and marvels at Hari upon learning his plans. As the novel ends, Sayyid Ali
Sahib highlights Hari and his sister's resolve to adapt and change in this growing and ever-developing
world.
Anita Desai has explicitly described in her very own style of writing, and she shows how Hari in the
dilapidated conditions of the Sri Krishna Eating House finds warmth and affection through Mr Andal
Panwallah – owner and watch mender of the Ding-Dong watch shop. Mr Panwallah instills confidence in
Hari and comforts him when he is terribly home sick. He even gives Hari a vivid and inspiring future and
teaches him watch mending. This shows that even in one of the busiest, rickety and ramshackle cities such
as Bombay there is still hope, love and affection. He also goes back to Thul with the help of Mr Panwallah
and Jagu insisting to buy the bus ticket. Jagu's generosity by giving him some extra money to be brought
back to his family.
Reception
"Desai's subject matter may be stereotypical, but her treatment and sensitive prose give depth to the story,
Every minute detail and image ... assumes meaning and fits into the intricate, multi-layered pattern of the
novel."[3]
Adaptation
It was adapted into a television series of the same name by the BBC in 1991.[4] There was one notable
actor Saeed Jaffrey who played the part of Mr. Penwala the watchmaker. A novice actor named Nishan R.
Wijesinghe (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishanwijesinghe/) played the lead role of Hari.
References
1. [PZ7.D4488 Vi 1982 "The village by the sea : an Indian family story"] (first edition). Library of
Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
2. "Guardian children's fiction prize relaunched: Entry details and list of past winners" (https://w
ww.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/12/guardianchildrensfictionprize2001.guardianchildre
nsfictionprize). The Guardian 12 March 2001. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
3. Meena Khorana (1991). The Indian Subcontinent in Literature for Children and Young
Adults: An Annotated Bibliography of English-language Books (https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=GSjcQ7Sm5E4C&q=anita+desai+young+adult+awards&pg=PA131). Greenwood
Publishing Group. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-313-25489-5. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
4. A Study Guide for Anita Desai's Clear Light of Day (https://books.google.com/books?id=-Kh
wCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT3). Gale. 2015. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-4103-3562-3.
External links
The Village by the Sea (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/0140118861) in libraries (WorldCat
catalog) —immediately, a record for a US edition
Summary (http://dimdima.com/bookbuzz/show_books.asp?q_bid=49&q_title=The%20Villag
e%20by%20the%20Sea)
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The Village by the Sea

The Village by the Sea: an Indian family story is a novel for

Penguin published a US edition in 1984.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Village_by_the_Sea&oldid=1100071326"

This page was last edited on 24 July 2022, at 02:39 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0;

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